{"id":456694,"date":"2026-03-04T07:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456694\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:39:13","slug":"familys-lucky-escape-after-mum-is-convinced-crocodile-near-home-is-just-a-log","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456694\/","title":{"rendered":"Family’s lucky escape after mum is convinced crocodile near home is just a log"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Kirsop thought her 12-year-old son Lionel Saunders and his friends were joking when he called her to report seeing a crocodile in the creek near their home\"The<\/p>\n

The crocodile was seen at Ironbark Creek in New South Wales(Image: NBNNews)<\/p>\n

A family had a lucky escape when a mum dismissed her son’s claims there was a crocodile<\/a> near their home.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Kirsop thought Lionel Saunders was joking when he called her to say he’d spotted a reptile<\/a>. However, the mother went to the creek near her home and was amazed at the sight of a crocodile lurking in the water.<\/p>\n

Experts say the species of croc is capable of inflicting serious injury. Stephanie considers the encounter a narrow escape as her children and their pals often swim in the creek in Newcastle, a coastal city in New South Wales<\/a> in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recalling the encounter, the mum said: “There is a little crocodile just swimming around in the creek where local kids go to fish and sometimes kids swim in there. Wow.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Piranhas savage more than 40 people and force closure of popular beach<\/a>READ MORE: Agonising final moments of couple abandoned by tour boat in shark-infested water<\/a>\"Billy<\/p>\n

Billy Collett holds the freshwater crocodile caught near Newcastle, New South Wales(Image: AP)<\/p>\n

But Stephanie was skeptical of 12-year-old Lionel at first, insisting she felt she was being tricked. She added: “My son took videos because he was trying to convince me it was real and I didn\u2019t believe him. It did look like a crocodile but I was like, ‘no it\u2019s a log’.<\/p>\n

“He rang me back a little bit later and he\u2019s like: ‘I\u2019m so serious mom. You have to come down here and have a look.’ The whole drive down there I\u2019m thinking this is going to be a trick. They\u2019re going to laugh at me.”<\/p>\n

The little Australian freshwater crocodile, which measured 39-inch-long, was eventually caught two miles from where it was spotted. Authorities, though, struggled to believe Stephanie and her son when they first reportted the reptile because they often get false calls in the area.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Horror moment crocodile mauls boy, 10, to death as he swims with friends<\/a><\/p>\n

Billy Collett, manager of the Australian Reptile Park, even suspected the images he was sent might have been artificial intelligence-generated fakes. He said: “I was a bit suspicious because we get a lot of phone calls. These days with AI, it\u2019s just so crazy… They\u2019re capable of inflicting a serious injury.”<\/p>\n

The croc is healthy and will stay at Australian Reptile Park until authorities decide where it should go permanently. Mr Collett continued: “I just wanted to get him out of there because he would\u2019ve perished in winter.”<\/p>\n

Crocs are protected under Australian law. The expert believes the reptile was a pet which had been released into the wild after growing too big for a fish tank or too dangerous.<\/p>\n

Mr Collett added: “I just wanted to get him out of there because he would\u2019ve perished in winter.” It is currently autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephanie Kirsop thought her 12-year-old son Lionel Saunders and his friends were joking when he called her to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2851,428,19272,90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-456694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-australia","tag-crocodiles","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}